I actually thought Martinelli was better today. Still not great but I thought he was more dangerous running with the ball. The Martinelli/Trossard combo is a very good one.

Still need another attacker though as we all know.

I'm good with the lw combo too. We'd have to break the bank to level up there. We need a better forward or rw option

daredevil there are two parties in the battle. Villa isn't some random scrub team. They are a champions league quality side from the premier league, who beat us twice last season. They had a plan to stop our midfield(ers) from having too much space, and they executed well off the ball.

Tough game, but it's in these matches where you learn about your weaknesses. Martinelli wasn't great, but I'm still not that worried about him. We just need another forward, especially considering Jesus is a mess.

The midfield was unable to deal with Aston Villa's midblock press and running power. A lot of this was due to Rice being so high that he couldn't cover for a struggling Partey, who needs replacing.

Rest of the team looks pretty excellent, honestly. Odegaard had a poor game, but I'm not worried about him, either.

Trossard is a fantastic impact sub, whether he likes it or not.

Big result given the games against them were ultimately what cost us last season. Did highlight we're in need of another forward though and the lack of a striker may be where we fall short this season.

Coombs spot on analysis. Onana power and athleticism is really in stark contrast to Partey. He still can pass well and execute his favorite body feints but physically he is kinda lacking these days sadly. Even Tielemans was running rings around him

Wish we had signed Onana

lorddulaarsenal Merino incoming.

I think its too late for a big name but Adingra would be delightful. See his assist for Pedro's goal, brilliant

Qwiss Timber had a good game too

His play was overall slick, but his positioning wasn't. Then again, it's only the start. I'm sure he'll be watching it back and protecting things a little more in future runouts. That slightly overhit through ball to Saka could've been a beautiful thing, and those haven't been a feature of Zinchenko's game for us.

Just watched this back because it was on at an ungodly hour Darwin time, and I was out in the country this morning. Not a bad watch. To say the least we were fortunate to keep a clean sheet, and this was a very useful result for us.

Martinelli has never been quite this poor, pretty much every ball was overhit or misdirected and every decision was bad. He looked much better in preseason, I think the pressure from Trossard is getting to him. Trossard's goal celebration was fucking funny, but also had a hint of "I should be starting" about it, understandably so.

I wouldn't mind a forward signing just to shake up the dynamic and get rid of the sense it's all about the competition for Martinelli's place. Merino's eventual introduction might also do that.

Martinelli and Havertz both had stinkers. The rest were somewhere between mixed (most folks) and good (largely Saliba, Raya and White), but these 2 were almost singularly bad. While I know that the "hot hand" does not really exist and streaks are a part of even Poisson distributions, Havertz feels like a very streaky player who somehow needs to gain confidence in some intangible way before he starts contributing. The issue is that when he is not on a "streak", he's an active liability. Feels like we have too many sub-optimal players in the forward line, who, while they provide bodies, don't provide much capability.

Missed the game but absolutely delighted with the result!

Let's iron out the kinks, sign an attacker and see if we can keep rolling on.

Made me chuckle a little

Big Willie If he could finish with that accuracy he'd sort our forward problems. Someone needs to make him feel about the goal the way he feels about Steve Holland

Burnwinter loved this moment.

TambourineMan The way Digne crumples is deeply satisfying